One of the barriers to Lumia 1020 adoption in the US has been the high price; you've had to really love phone photography to justify spending $299 on-contract. That shouldn't be an issue from now on, as both AT&T and Microsoft have permanently dropped the Nokia flagship's price to $199 with a two-year agreement. If you buy from the Microsoft Store, you'll even get a free black camera grip through a limited-time offer. The new pricing might not sway every Windows Phone fan when a next-gen Lumia may lurk just around the corner, but those who've been waiting for a good bargain on the 1020 will find one at the source links.

VLC returned to iOS with big upgrades like AirPlay and Dropbox integration, but it left out a few of the very valuable features we've seen in other media players. The app's new 2.1 update addresses several of those omissions in one fell swoop. VLC can now play audio-only files, and it will stream content from both UPnP devices and FTP servers. Even a few of the smaller additions could be quite useful for some viewers -- there's a video deinterlacing option, for example, as well as support for subtitles in non-Western languages. We're sure that VLC 2.1 won't please everyone, but iOS media lovers who held off on downloading 2.0 will want to give the update a closer look.

The G in Huawei's letter-based lineup is meant to be midrange at best, so it's no surprise that the Ascend G700 hasn't been the subject of as much eager anticipation as, say, a certain new Nexus. Still, the device, which was announced this week and expected to arrive in China next month, was deemed worthy enough to be seen by thousands of onlookers in the company's booth at IFA 2013. The Android 4.2 smartphone features Huawei's Emotion UI, dual-SIM support, a 720p IPS display, 1.2GHz quad-core MediaTek Cortex-A7 SoC, 2GB RAM, 8MP rear camera and 1.3MP front-facing shooter. In our brief time with the device, we liked the overall feel of the 5-inch phone; its arched smooth plastic back, which maxes out at 9mm thick, was adequately comfortable to hold. It's a midrange phone through and through, which means you're going to get a lot of decent performance with -- you guessed it -- decent specs. It's a sleek device, so hopefully the price is right (though phones in this series rarely if ever go above ¥2,000 or about $320 unsubsidized). Check out some more images of Huawei's latest below.

Hey, remember Twitter #Music? Yes, thatTwitter #Music. Well, the jam-focused service is getting a little better on iOS thanks to the latest update. Today's changes aren't as major as the discovery features and additional languages the app gained last month, but #Music power users will most likely still appreciate the new additions. To be more specific, the app squeezes some new features into the #NowPlaying feed, allowing you to favorite, retweet and reply to tracks shared by others. Best of all, now you won't have to stop and switch between Twitter apps to share how you feel when someone's listening to Miley Cyrus' "We Can't Stop."

You'd think that the Lumia 1020's 41-megapixel camera and unibody design would deter clone makers -- how do you even get close to the real thing? That hasn't stopped an anonymous Shenzhen company from giving it a shot, however. As you'd expect, this attempt at keepin' it real fake is nowhere near as well-designed as the Nokia original. It's housed in a crude two-piece shell and carries just a 2MP camera at the back. Most of the rear hump is occupied by "41-megaplxel" speakers and an attempted revival of Nokia's XpressMusic badge. At least the Windows Phone-like Android launcher is more convincing. We'd advise against spending $69 on this knockoff for serious uses, although you may want one for the novelty; now that Microsoft is buying Nokia's device business, it may the closest we get to an Android-based Nokia phone. Check out a second image of the clone after the break.

Waiting to see when BBM will actually launch on other mobile platforms? According to a tweet from BlackBerry Senior Strategic Account Manager Alex Kinsella, the timing may be in Apple's hands. Stating "BBM for iPhone was submitted for review 2 wks ago #waiting", this might shift blame for any perceived delay -- summer ends September 21st in the northern hemisphere -- from Waterloo to Cupertino. It's a reminder of rumors that surfaced before Google launched its standalone Maps app on iOS, but unfortunately doesn't give us a firm date on when to expect the app. Still, with recent accidental leaks and video previews of the Android version, it shouldn't be much longer.

"If you're an '80s guy like me, then you know it's important to be a shark. That means getting up, choking down a double espresso and listening to Huey Lewis. Then it's time to hit the trading floor and make a cool hundred mil or something before dinner. Lunch? Lunch is for wimps. Talking about wimps, those hipsters who use Native Union's Pop retro smartphone handset are scum. Me? I'm all about the Binatone Brick. Cram in a SIM card and you can make calls on this thing AND play Snake (I mean, we are living in the future) even while riding the elevator. But pair it over Bluetooth to your smartphone, and you'll impress everyone when you're walking and talking. It'll launch soon for you mere mortals, priced at £50 in the UK with a 1,000mAh battery, but for a big-shot like me who's always making deals, I'm holding out for the 2,000mAh version that'll come later for £80. Oh, and one more thing -- in the time it took you to read this, I just bought San Marino."

-G. Gekko

Mr. Gekko's views are entirely his own and do not reflect those of Engadget or AOL.

If all of the possible combos afforded by MotoMaker just aren't enough to properly outfit that Moto X handset, MAKEwithMOTO has a tool that's ready to lend a hand. During the course of some recent make-a-thons, the crew has wrangled software and 3D printing tech to further customize those shiny new phones. MAKEwithX allows those that have splurged for that Android smartphone to design and 3D print unique accessories and cases with the help of generators like Radiolaria -- furthering the user-designed motives behind the entire Moto X line. These add-ons include NFC-enabled topographic dog tags and tessellation bracelets as well as backplates and clear cases that keep that custom color visible. Output colors are said to match up with MotoMaker's accent hues. Code for many of these generators are open source and built on the Cubify platform from 3D Systems. Tagging tweets with #makewithx if you're in the northeast US (mostly between Boston and NYC) will put you in the running for a chance to construct your own creations with the MAKEwithMOTO crew. For a bit more info about the whole project, venture on to the coverage link that follows.

With the new Xbox this November, Microsoft's bringing a new iteration of SmartGlass to iOS, Android, and Windows Phone devices. And with said new iteration comes promised SmartGlass ubiquity. Microsoft GM and SmartGlass team lead Ron Pessner told Engadget as much in an interview this week on all things SmartGlass for Xbox One. You'll need to download a new (still free) SmartGlass app to your Smart device of choice come launch day (the new app won't function with Xbox 360, just the One).

Up to 15 of your best friends can bring their Smart devices over and...well, nothing just yet, but the Xbox One will support 16 Smart devices connected at one time (double the connected controller cap). Just imagine the possibilities for virtual canasta! Okay, not so thrilling, but the potential for games like Monopoly or Dungeons & Dragons is evident. Or maybe something more like Spaceteam?

Pessner also promised that the connectivity between Smart device and console is "three-and-a-half times faster" on Xbox One than with 360 (depending on your home wireless setup), and the first time "only takes about four seconds." And while on the go, the SmartGlass app can be used for mobile shopping, allowing a game or other piece of content to be purchased and made available when you get home. Pessner wouldn't go into specifics, but he told us, "We definitely want to make sure it's a seamless process for customers and they're able to find a piece of content regardless of where they are -- the web or the SmartGlass app -- and being able to have that content ready for them to play when they return to their Xbox One." The remotely queued content will show up as pinned to your Dashboard when you get back to the console, available to play immediately.

An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft spent billions purchasing Mojang, the studio behind the game Minecraft, and while it's unlikely to start work on a sequel anytime soon, rather than continue development of the game, it's worth considering what a Minecraft 2 will look like. After all, as a public company with revenues to justify, it […]

An anonymous reader writes 14 years after the Anna Kournikova virus took advantage of users' ignorance about file-name extensions in order to wreak worldwide havoc, virus writers and hackers are still taking advantage of the tendency of popular consumer operating systems to hide file-name extensions: Windows users still need to activate extension visibility manually – […]

Phopojijo writes The Khronos Group has announced the Vulkan API for compute and graphics. Its goal is to compete against DirectX 12. It has some interesting features, such as queuing to multiple GPUs and an LLVM-based bytecode for its shading language to remove the need for a compiler from the graphics drivers. Also, the API […]